I’m preparing a talk for a local university and got to thinking…I assume that I know what the term ‘wildlife trade’ means to most people. But perhaps I should test that assumption…
The audience will mainly be professors and advanced students. Presumably more informed than the average person on the street. Sort of like you all!
So…what does wildlife trade mean to you? When you hear the term, what does it make you think of?
The buying and selling of animals or animal parts that were harvested from the wild.
Illegal wildlife trade is the same thing, but specifically when it violates either national or international laws. I would also qualify that there are countries that have not signed on to CITES and therefore can trade CITES species without technically violating international law, but I would still classify that as illegal wildlife trade.
“I’ll give you two squirrels and a chipmunk for the possum…”
I admit…I laughed…
I’ve never heard or read this term before today so, technically, it meant nothing to me. I’d assume it has to do with buying and selling products made from wild animals.
Yeah, as a serious answer, the phrase isn’t really familiar to me, either. I have heard “bushmeat trade”, though.
Same here. It wasn’t difficult for me to figure this out, but it’s not a term that I can remember hearing before, and it’s not a topic about which I know a lot (despite the fact that I labor under the assumption that I’m better-informed than the average American 
).
Unless you’re very certain that it’s a term that your audience already knows (i.e., an audience who works in conservation, or in customs enforcement), I don’t think it can hurt to give a brief definition of the term at the beginning of your talk. You could even preface it with wording like, “As some of you may already be aware, the ‘wildlife trade’ is…”
I agree that it’s commerce in wild (as opposed to domesticated) species, either flora or fauna. It doesn’t have to be illegal or even trade like we might normally think (buying a deer permit, taking the carcass to be butchered, getting the head taxidermied, etc. could all be considered part of it) but food resources is less likely to immediately come to mind. I would say it tends to be thought of as more of a luxury trade than a source of materials for other uses. For example, people are more likely to think of something like a parrot than a basket of seashells or coral beads or the wild-caught Alaskan salmon they had for dinner and that illegal trade comes to mind more readily than legal trade.
I’d assume it includes the trading of live wild animals for the exotic pet market. But does it include wild caught fish? Wild live plants like orchids? Things that are harvested in the wild (brazil nuts, truffles, etc)? I have no idea.
For a talk, you should explain what you mean by the term. Lots of people may think they know what it means, but it still helps to know what context you are using the term. Unless you are giving a talk to people in a specific field of study (e.g. academic conference for a specific topic), and the term has a very specific meaning in that field.
Taking wild animals and plants and selling them. Very often illegal and/or ecologically disastrous.
I second this suggestion.
Usually I have heard it in reference to the trade of live animals. When its more dead/hides/meat the expression I’ve heard is “wild game trade” or something more along those lines.
I would consider selling pangolin scales or rhiniceros horn as part of the ‘illegal wildlife trade.’ I could be wrong though.
I laughed as well - everyone knows a possum is worth twice that!
+As to the term “wildlife trade”, it means nothing specific to me. It could cover anything from harvesting wild plants or animals, o r[arts thereof all the way to being a Game Warden. Another vote for defining the phrase first.
Poaching.
How is a possum worth any of that? When’s the last time you saw a possum cap or had possum dumplings?
I’ve never heard of “wildlife trade” except in the phrase “illegal wildlife trade”. So I also thought of CITES. But um, yeah, I guess it probably also includes the fur earmuffs I’m about to order from a woman in Maine who buys hides from local trappers.
My first thought was the squirrels, chipmunk, and possum thing. On thinking about it a bit more, I figured it was probably trade in luxury wild animal parts like elephant tusks and rhino horns (which will, in most cases, be illegal). If someone told me that it also included live exotic pets, I wouldn’t be surprised. If someone told me that it included plants, or ordinary game meat like venison, I would be.
I work in wildlife rescue and to me this means the illegal taking of wildlife for trade or sale for any reason.
Some examples:
People who basically kidnap baby raccoons, squirrels, or other small mammals and try to sell them as exotic pets.
People who illegally trap wild animals for fur.
People who illegally trap wildlife for sale to “private zoos”.